The Disillusioned One
I don't always judge an album by its cover, but I do tend to judge music by its vocals: good vocals having the power to exalt the music, bad ones to ruin it.
Fear not: in this case, both the music and the vocals are of the highest quality. I'd go so far as to say that these are amongst the most maniacal and varied out there, which is a big plus in my book.
Fair warning: this will grab you by the throat and not let go.
Opethian
What hit me right off the bat were the Thomas Gabriel Fischer like vocals that I fell in love with years ago. This was a random find on Youtube and another album shot straight to the top of greats from 2019. Serpens Luminis's sound is crushing, with the feeling of being stuck in a chaotic nightmare. This is a must buy, and again another AOTY contender. Cheers from Colorado! 9/10
Favorite track: A Wreathed Skull.
True to their roots plunged into occultism and mysticism, faithful to their need to explore the profound depths of the human inner-self, the entity called SERPENS LUMINIS appears at dawn of the year 2015. After several months of introspection, the first emanation took place in 2017 through the title Usque Ad Sideras et Usque Ad Inferos, being a split CD with fellow Swiss hordes Nansis and Haruspex. Now, in 2019, a new offering emerges from the mist: Bright Euphoria.
SERPENS LUMINIS is a meditation whose purpose is to move towards an enlightened understanding regarding the ways to channel the Black Flame and let it run with the ecstatic fury of the Kundalini rising to Sahasrāra - a spiritual and obsessive quest in order to be finally able to bear the solemn and powerful devotion dedicated to the glorification of Daath; a reverence towards the 11-headed Dragon, the silhouette with 32 pairs of wings and innumerable eyes. Or, put more concretely, rich 'n' robust black metal imbued with both muscle and atmosphere, spectral shapes guided by an iron fist: orthodox, spiritual, but utterly unbound. Dynamic vibration, ceremonial in every aspect but never overly labored: Bright Euphoria is an infinitely illuminating 28 minutes of mastery, that Black Flame indeed burning brightly across the mini-album's three component tracks.
A few live rituals are led in order to bring an aural and carnal painting of a primordial link, a numinous bridge between the spiritual chaos of Masak Mavdil and the luminous arabesques of the 288 divine sparks melted with blasphemous fragments of the sephirot vessels. Be ready to endure Thy light who will initiate to quiver and whirl around the primordial vibrations of Ain Soph: a kind of tombstone for our carnal shape, a tombstone which begins to radiate with an unearthly glare. An odd glow, growing brighter at each pulse...
Verily, behold SERPENS LUMINIS' Bright Euphoria and submit to its life-giving/ending glow.
supported by 32 fans who also own “Bright Euphoria”
The album description mentions an “emotional apex.” That’s really the difference between Stare and the band’s previous albums. Ulcerate was always supremely technically proficient. I just didn’t care all that much. Their growth has come from making music you will feel. Metallurgical Fire